No. "TV" and "smart TV" are not the only two options. Back in the 60's a TV, by definition, received in black and white, so if you want to be specific, you'll have to call your TV a "color TV", and people did that for a while. Similarly the word "TV" was frequently prefixed with "widescreen", "flatscreen" and "smart" during periods of time. When you say "TV" today, you mean something very different from when the word was invented.

The English language has a long history of shortening "adjective noun" to just

And when the day comes that people don't even use smartphones to make voice calls, I'm going to still call them "phones". Maybe some little kid will ask me why I call it a "phone" and I'll go into a meandering monologue about Alexander Graham Bell and land lines and rotary phones and dial-up Internet service.

I still run into Brits who say Centigrade. Even Americans know that's wrong.And what's up with how Brits pronounce Lieutenant? I'm sure there is some great historical reason, but maybe you should have picked a sane way to spell it instead of picking the French spelling and pronouncing it some bizarre way.

No, it doesn't need a new name.You can't judge an item based on how much you use it performing a certain task.If that would be the case, I would look at the pornitor instead of monitor, and have to rename fingers to masturbingers.

That's not very catchy, try to put a more positive spin on it. You know those customer tracking cards that grocery stores give you? We could start calling phones, "loyalty devices."

Loyal to who, you ask? To your country, of course. We spin their tracking you as a way of fighting terrorism and catching child predators, then we don't have to hide the fact that they're doing it. In fact, if you can spin this effectively enough then you can do better than "loyalty device" - call it a "freedom phone" or a "po

...call it a "freedom phone" or a "pocket patriot." People will laugh at that, but if they laugh because it's corny then they won't be recoiling in horror. Children will love to call them "PeePees," and it'll work itself into the common vernacular.

You know, I may start calling it a "pocket phone," abbreviated pp. It will make for all sorts of interesting statements: "We were having a conversation, but then he pulled out his pee-pee and started playing with it...".

How about "dumb-phones" because how they transform its users into dumb and obnoxious people?

Because how they make their users walk into things, or off cliffs or quays, or out into traffic or railway crossings? (Unless I run and save them... Not that she ever took her eyes from the friggin phone during the whole ordeal!!)

Because how they make their users ignore its surroundings by immersing them into their clunky cumbersome interfaces [fastcodesign.com]... and often while the users standing in the "best" places: in doorways to shops or train cars, or while operating a car.... Because if you drive slow enough, it is perfectly safe to use the phone at the same time. (Never mind the texting taxi-driver that almost run me over the other day...)

How they make their users yell to people are on the phone with, as if these two would be are the only ones there but separated ten metres apart, letting everyone else in the supermarket check-out line -- including the poor cashier the user is handing money to at this exact moment -- know about their genital warts. (I really needed to know that too!)

Except for work-phones that have been assigned to me, yes,for personal use I have instead a "regular" cell-phone and a couple of tablets.The railway-crossing incident happened years ago right before smartphones became popular, and it scared me straight.

BTW. I wish that connected 8" tablet, Bluetooth hand-free and smartwatch would be a viable option to cell phones, but Google and Apple don't want to make it so. I'd have to use a third-party app and their service to be able to make phone calls with a tablet -

Yes, transmit and receive speech is THE primary function of "smartphone". The fact that they have applications and internet capabilities is still secondary. The fact that many people prefer to text or just search the internet does not demean from their primary purpose.

Because, the "phone" functionality is only 0.01% of what it's used for. Phoning is only one of hundreds if not thousands of its functions. It's a pocket computer, or PC, or PCP (Pocket Computer Phone).

I'd favor NPDA for Networked Personal Digital Assistant. I currently have two, but I use both of them more as PDAs than as telephones. One actually is a phone, but the other only has VoIP capability. Still not as satisfied as I was at Peak Pilot, before Palm was induced to commit suicide. The apps have NOT progressed nearly as much as they could and should have (and I think that is largely due to the bad financial models).

The sumaho is kind of a joke from Japanese. In Japanese the common abbreviation for sm

It will most likely change. Or at least be shortened to just "phone"."Smartphone" is a mouthful, like "automobile". And no one talk about automobiles now, they are all cars.This is something the next generation will probably decide.

Not only that, Schlock Mercenary had handbrains with capabilities that are pretty much identical to present-day smartphones a couple of years before the latter actually broke through in consumer space: http://www.schlockmercenary.co... [schlockmercenary.com]
That's far from their earliest occurrence in the comic, but in retrospect, the "EPIC 404" it is pretty much the point at which their capabilities are fully established, after having been used as electronic paper with touch interface, e-mail client, recording and video-confer

It's a computer that just happens to be able to make phone calls and send SMS. It also happens to also be a media player and a camera (both stills and video.)

No need to qualify it with "pocket" or any other adjective. It's just a computer that happens to fit in one's pocket.

And FWIW, around here, almost everyone calls it a "phone." not "Smartphone".. just "phone." "Gimmie the phone, man!" "Which one, the Samsung with the cracked screen, the LG with the cracked case, or the iPhone with the missing chunks in the bezel?"

I vote for Aug. As in "Brain Augmentation" or "Augmented Reality" like in the polity series. Hopefully soon we will be able to stare through our screens instead of looking at them.Also subvocalized wikipedia searches should be a priority.

Language is not something that we--or some committee--dictates.It's just out there.People use the words they like to say the things they are saying.In time, people will adopt a new word for smart phones...or they won't.And if they do, we will only find out what that new word is when people start using it.

That's basically how those things are used these days. Since you don't have a keyboard, there is virtually no way to give it meaningful commands. Instead it gives you commands. Have you ever watched an "average" person near an annoyo-slab? It constanty cries for attention, by beeping or dinging or making other sounds.

Essentially it's all the bad aspects of computing, including surveillance in one small box.

Phone. I don't have any other kind of phone but my smart phone, so calling it other is ubiquitous distinction. As humans we always seek to minimize the effort and load on ourselves, and I already call my flat screen TV just my TV, (or my extended cab 4x4 truck just truck). The chance came and went to call the smartphone something else (minicomp/microcomp/etc.) The best chance for that to happen was when Jobs introduced the iPhone and that came and went. Although, take any 15 year old kid and show them

I don't know anybody that has called them "smart phones" since the fashion phones died out like 6 or 7 years ago. All phones now are 'smart phones' and they're ubiquitously referred to as 'Cell Phones'.

I asked [slashdot.org] Slashdot this question 2 weeks ago.Didn't get many comments so here's what I asked, for what's it's worth, here:

"Every time I see a smart phone related post here Slashdot, or other forums, there will be the obligatory rants about1) why does a "phone" need such a large screen and/or 2) why do people pay so much for a "phone"It strikes me that the problem is in the classification of these devices.The fact that they are still used for making phone calls is now irrelevant, and I would guess, if you did